“Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased. Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came.”

In later messages, he accused the BBC of throwing him ‘under the bus’.

Some have stuck up for him, however. Comedian Dara Ó Briain said: “What? Danny Baker got fired? But he immediately apologised and deleted the tweet! I mean, literally, in the event of mistakenly causing offence, what else can you do? Genuinely amazed by that.

“Also amazed by how many thought that by posting this, I was excusing the original tweet. Of course I wasn’t.

“The Irish had a century of that monkey sh*t too, y’know (cf Punch magazine). Ultimately, though, I’d like that to hope if/when I f**k up, you might accept an apology…”

MSN UK are Empowering Happiness for mental health awareness month. Find out more about our campaign and the charities working to stop people falling into crisishere.